The Guaranteed Cabin Debate!!!

Over the years more and more cruise lines have offered a guaranteed cabin, as a result a lot of customers have often taken this option. So what is a guaranteed cabin? First off we should probably take a second and explain exactly what a guaranteed cabin is, as the phrase itself is actually a bit of a misnomer. The cabins aren’t really guaranteed at all!

The traditional way of booking is to choose your cabin type i.e. inside, outside, balcony or suite, by looking in the brochure or on-line, and then choosing the deck and the location of the cabin. What a lot of the cruise lines introduced was special offers or discounted pricing on cabins and to access these cheaper prices, you’ll need to book what’s known as a guaranteed cabin. This is when you choose a guaranteed inside, outside, balcony or suite cabin which means you’re guaranteed a cabin within that grade but it could be anywhere on the ship.

So is it worth it? Well it really depends upon personal preference. Yes great savings can be made by doing this and if you don’t spend much time in your cabin this can be a good option. To be fair if you go on holiday in a hotel, anywhere in the world , you might pay a supplement for a sea view or a suite but you rarely have any say in where the room is positioned in the hotel. On the other hand if being near the lifts and ships facilities is a deal breaker , guaranteeing your cabin at the time of booking is a must have,  not an option.

To be fair over the years I have heard many people being upgraded when booking a guaranteed cabin, this is because Cruise Operators will keep re-selling the lower grades of cabins over and over again to fill the ship up to capacity. So you can find that people that have booked a guaranteed inside cabin may get upgraded to ocean view, a guaranteed ocean view could get upgraded to balcony and so on.

Other considerations are if you are travelling with family or in a group even if the bookings are linked together with the cruise line the cabins can be different grades and on different decks. Also with some cruise lines like P&O and Cunard when booking a guaranteed cabin dining is also allocated on board. So if you like to be guaranteed 1st or 2nd dinner sitting then this is another important factor to be taken in to account.

What do you think? You will always be ‘guaranteed’ a cabin , the debate is though what other ‘guarantees’ are important to you?